Before That Night.
Things were happening. And they were happening too fast. Andee breathed out, stilled her quickly beating heart.
She wasn’t sure if she was ready for this.
She wasn’t sure if she ever would be. Not with Robin. Robin, who had—
“Andee, we’ve gotta get going!” Tiffany trilled as she tugged open the convertible’s driver-side door.
Andee swallowed and trotted down the steps, trying not to finish the thought, trying to think of anything else…
Failing. Failing. Failing.
Robin, who had broken her heart.
---
On the way to the aquarium, Robin’s fingers brushed against Andee’s shoulder again, but this time, Andee wasn’t quite certain that she liked it. She sat, disgruntled and uncertain, pinned against the door in the convertible, worrying at her lip and biting her nails and trying to make sense of the mad jumble of feelings, emotions and memories that were tumbling around inside of her.
She didn’t know what to do.
What if I wanted to kiss you?
By the time they’d reached the National Aquarium in the Inner Harbor, Andee was a complete mess.
“Look,” said Andee, as Tiffany turned the car toward a massive parking garage, easing through the traffic, as she laid on her horn in intermittent bursts. “Where are we staying tonight?”
“At a Holiday Inn,” said Robin, grinning. “It has a pool! And it’s right here, in the Inner Harbor. I mean, it’s a Holiday Inn, so it’s not fancy or anything, but—”
“Well, that’s great,” said Andee, mustering some enthusiasm. “Why don’t you drop me off at the hotel? Then I’ll get us checked into our rooms, and you can stay at the aquarium as long as you want.”
“What?” asked Robin. When Andee turned to her, the hurt was apparent, unhidden, in her blue eyes. “But you love aquariums,” said Robin, all in a rush. And then, quickly, smoothly, the mask fell back over her face. The Robin-mask that insisted everything was fine and fun. “I mean, do what you want, Andee,” she said, shrugging.
Andee breathed out, curled her hands into fists so her fingers wouldn’t shake. “I’m just tired,” she said, lying. Well, it wasn’t a complete lie. She really was tired, but that’s not why she didn’t want to go to the aquarium.
And she truly did want to go. She just didn’t want to go with Robin.
She needed some time to herself. To think.
Even if thinking might ruin everything.
“Sure, honey. I can do that. I can drop you off,” said Tiffany, glancing in the rearview mirror with her brows raised. Jill typed the address of the hotel into the GPS, and Tiffany followed the instructions as Andee stared out at the bay, feeling miserable.
Robin no longer brushed her fingers against Andee’s arm.
When they reached the Holiday Inn, a many-storied building with a view of the harbor, Tiffany popped the trunk, and Andee dragged out her smallest suitcase, waving a goodbye over her shoulder as she wandered into the hotel.
“We’ll call you!” Tiffany hollered after her, and then Andee was in the lobby and Tiffany was gunning away.
Andee went through the motions of checking in. They were getting two rooms with a door between them. Fourth floor. She thanked the guy at the counter, took the packet of room keys, brochures and complimentary breakfast coupons, and went into the blessedly empty elevator.
She leaned against the wall, resting her hand on her suitcase, her head against the mirror behind her.
The elevator dinged for the fourth floor, and the door opened.
And Andee’s cell phone rang.
Her room was number four hundred and eighty-two. She followed the arrows for that section of room numbers and fished the phone out of her pocket, glancing down at the caller ID.
Elizabeth.
“Hi, Andee!” Elizabeth sang into the receiver when Andee answered. In spite of herself, Andee found herself smiling. There was something about Elizabeth that brought a smile to the face of everyone who knew her. “How are the girls? How’s the road trip so far? Are you guys still driving?”
“Hi, Elizabeth,” she said, spotting their room. She let go of her suitcase and drew out a room key, her fingers brushing against the plastic. “We’re doing good. We’re in Baltimore now.”
“That’s great! Have some crab for me!”
Andee chuckled, the door opening beneath her hand. “We’ll be sure to do that.”
“Where is everyone? How come I’m not hearing Tiff’s loud mouth?”
“Oh… They’re all at the National Aquarium right now,” said Andee, dragging her suitcase in behind her and letting the door close with a sigh of relief. The room was very nice—two queen size beds, perfectly inviting, just like every other hotel room she’d been in. She flopped down on a soft white chair, sinking deeply into it. “They went without me. I just checked us into the hotel. I didn’t go because…I have a headache,” she added, because she realized she needed some sort of excuse, or Elizabeth would wonder what was up.
She did, anyway.
“How are you and Robin getting along?” asked Elizabeth, and Andee could hear the conspiratorial tone to her voice. Andee sighed for a long moment, feeling the last bits of her energy drain away.
“It’s all right,” she said, shrugging against the chair. “We’re a week away from the big day, aren’t we? How are the last preparations for the wedding going?” Andee winced at her clunky change of subject, but Elizabeth still rose to the bait. Thankfully.
“Oh, just wonderful,” Elizabeth cooed into the phone. “We just picked up my dress this afternoon. You know that Heather is wearing a suit. Well, we picked up that yesterday…” She went on for several more minutes, and Andee oohed and aahed at what seemed to her like the appropriate times. Finally, Elizabeth said, “Would you believe Kimberly and Joanna are already here? They’ve been helping us out with everything.” Elizabeth’s voice dropped even lower. “But it doesn’t seem like Kimberly and Joanna are actually doing that well together.” She cleared her throat. “Andee, I’m really worried about them.”
“What?” asked Andee, sitting up and biting her lip. “But they’re…they’re great!” She couldn’t imagine trouble in that paradise. Kimberly and Joanna had been going out since college, had gotten married a few years ago in a tiny civil ceremony with only one witness—because they couldn’t wait to be married. They were so in love.
“Well, they are great. But they’re fighting a lot…” Elizabeth’s hushed voice rose as she squealed into the receiver. “Speak of the devil! Here’s Kimberly now! Do you want to talk to her?”
“Sure,” muttered Andee, and then the phone was passed on. In the background, someone laughed, and very loud seventies rock music was playing.
“Andee, baby, how are you?” Kimberly gushed into the phone, and Andee relaxed, melting into the chair. Andee loved Kimberly, the self-professed “funny one,” the one who’d been there for her unfailingly after Robin… Well, after. Though she hadn’t stayed in touch with Kimberly as much as she would have liked to over the years, Andee still adored her. She bristled when she thought of all of the times Robin had called her a flake.
“I’m doing good,” Andee said. And then, maybe because of the enthusiasm in Kimberly’s voice, or how tired she was from last night, or because of the events of the day….or because of the kiss, but Andee felt her eyes fill with tears, and she very, very quietly cried into the phone.
“Oh, my God, Andee. What’s wrong?” said Kimberly, aghast, and—in broken tones—Andee filled her in on the previous evening. And how her feelings for Robin seemed to be coming back. Or, perhaps, had never fully died in the first place.
Kimberly listened, interjecting with sympathetic sounds every once in awhile as Andee spoke. When Andee finished, Kimberly cleared her throat.
“I mean, I never doubted that she cared for you,” she said slowly, carefully, clearing her throat again. “She just… She just made a mistake. M
aybe it’d be all right to give her a second chance. But…I don’t know.”
“Who are you talking to?” The voice on the other end of the line, in the background, was sharp, like a knife, and Andee winced, removing the phone from her ear. It had sounded like Joanna, but a very angry Joanna. Andee had never heard her angry before.
“I’m talking to Andee, baby,” said Kimberly soothingly, sweetly. “Do you want to say hello?”
“No.”
And then Andee supposed that Joanna left, because she couldn’t hear her anymore.
“We’re at Elizabeth and Heather’s house,” said Kimberly into the phone. “Joanna’s…a little miffed that we arrived so early. Is all.” There was something in Kimberly’s tone that made her explanation sound a little bit like a fib, but Andee wasn’t certain what.
“I’m sorry,” she said automatically, but then Kimberly snorted.
“It’s all right, really. What about you? What do you think you’re going to do? If it were me,” she said smoothly, steamrolling right over Andee’s first syllable, “I might give her a chance.” Andee could practically hear the shrug over the phone. “But, again, I don’t know. I think she learned her lesson. Probably wouldn’t do it again.” Kimberly sniffed. Then her voice lowered. “I just want you to be happy, Andee,” she said softly, the words oozing with kindness. “You really deserve to be happy.”
“Aw, thanks,” said Andee, awkwardly holding the phone to her ear and staring down at her lap.
“Anyway, gotta run and calm down the old wife,” Kimberly laughed, a bright, cheerful, happy sound. “Do you want to talk to Elizabeth some more?”
“Oh, don’t bother her,” said Andee, glancing out the window at the bay and the water beginning to turn orange from the sunset in the opposite direction. She supposed the sunrises here were amazing, and then realized she’d probably wake up early enough tomorrow morning to actually see one. “You take care of yourself, and I can’t wait to see you guys—soon!”
“And you take care of yourself,” said Kimberly, her words heavy. “Love you, babe.”
“Love you,” said Andee.
She ended the call and drew her feet up so that she was curled tightly into the deep, comfortable chair. Andee played with her phone for a minute, wondering if she should check her email, wondering if she should call Danielle, her assistant, to find out if the Puppy Parlor was doing all right in her absence.
But she really was exhausted. And the chair was incredibly comfortable.
Andee fell asleep.
---
She dreamed.
Andee had always felt a little angry about how she dreamed. Most people dreamed about completely random things, so that their subconscious could dump out all of its cares and concerns. Andee had always compared it to cleaning out a purse. And she certainly had those dreams, too, the odd ones that she laughed about when she woke up.
But maybe it was because Andee thought about the past so often that it’s what she dreamed most about.
Like this dream, for example.
The dream began a few days after That Night, when her entire world had changed forever. And it had changed forever. Before That Night, Andee and Robin had had a plan—a life plan that included each other. They’d talked about buying a house together, about where they wanted to move, about what they wanted to do. And it was always an “us” conversation. They would have gone to the ends of the earth for each other.
Here and now, it was no longer an “us” conversation. Andee cried, as she had, after it happened. Robin’s explanations made no sense. Robin had tried to tell her that the woman Andee had seen in her bed had just turned up naked, that she’d just wandered into Kimberly and Robin’s room like that… And the last time she had begged Andee to speak to her, Robin had told her she’d been helping out “a friend.”
None of it made any sense, and the more Robin revised her explanations, the more Andee embraced the truth: Robin had simply cheated on her.
But Andee hadn’t known the specifics, not until Kimberly had come into her room, knocking softly, carrying a pizza box and a big bag of M&Ms, her face set in a sympathetic frown.
“The best breakup food that money can buy,” she’d said, dumping her offerings onto the counter before she turned to Andee and hugged her so tightly that Andee felt the breath leave her in a big whoosh of air. “I’m so sorry, babe,” said Kimberly then, and she’d taken a step back and planted a kiss on Andee’s cheek. A kiss that almost brushed against Andee’s lips.
Andee wasn’t in the mood for pizza or M&Ms, and she wasn’t even really in the mood to talk, but it was hard to refuse Kimberly. Kimberly, with her elfin face, her bright smile and sly eyes.
“Do you want me to tell you what happened?” Kimberly asked then, stepping back, holding Andee’s hands tightly.
No. Andee didn’t want to know.
“Yes,” Andee whispered.
“That girl came to our room for months. Months. I had no idea what was going on,” Kimberly shrugged, sitting down on the edge of Andee’s bed in the tiny dorm room. “They were seeing each other for a long time. I’m sorry, Andee.”
I’m sorry.
---
“Hey, sleepyhead! Rise and shine! It’s not even seven yet!”
Andee started awake, opening her eyes to see Robin, Jill and Tiff entering the hotel room. Jill was carrying a gigantic box of pizza, and Andee muzzily rubbed at her eyes, trying to figure out whether she was awake or still dreaming.
Robin glanced at her, mouth turning up at the corners, head to the side, eyes mischievous. Questioning.
Definitely not a dream. Andee sat up, her heart pounding as she tried to shrug off sleep, shrug off what she’d just experienced again in her dream, as if no time had passed at all.
“How was the aquarium?” asked Andee, stretching and sitting up straighter in the chair. She didn’t look at Robin as Jill placed the pizza box on the bed and Tiffany threw off her high heels, vaulting onto the next bed. She bounced on it, grinning widely as she let her purse fall onto the mattress beside her.
“Oh, it was great. I liked the sharks,” said Tiffany, flopping backwards so that she was lying on the bed. “So, who wants to swim?”
“From sharks to swimming. Such a daring lady,” said Jill, laughing as she rolled her eyes. “What about the pizza?”
“Oh, it’ll be fine,” said Tiff, bounding off the bed. “Come on, you guys! We have a pool! We’re on vacation! This is so, so awesome,” she said, starting to unbutton her shirt as she trotted toward the bathroom, grabbing her suitcase. “I won’t be a minute!” she hollered, and then she shut the bathroom door.
“How are you doing?” asked Robin, squatting down in front of Andee, her elbows on her knees as she gazed into Andee’s face, bright blue eyes wide with concern. Andee breathed out, staring into those eyes... The eyes she still dreamed about.
“I’m…uh…just going to…see the rooms next door,” muttered Jill, backing up and trying the door between the rooms. She opened it easily and ducked through, shutting it quietly behind her.
“Anyway, swimming’s good exercise, and Lord knows we haven’t been…” Tiff pushed out of the bathroom, already in her bathing suit, and eyed Robin and Andee seriously. “Oh, well crud,” she said, and tried to back up into the bathroom, but Andee stood, shaking her head, moving past Robin, who sighed.
“I’ll get changed next,” said Andee, eyes blurry as she took her suitcase and went into the bathroom, too, shutting the door behind her and leaning her forehead against it. Andee took a deep breath. And then another, for good measure. She unzipped her suitcase and dug through the clothes to the very bottom, where she’d put her one-piece bathing suit.
In short order, all of the women changed into their bathing suits and flip-flops, Tiffany leading the way as they left the hotel rooms and marched in a line toward the elevator.
Andee tried not to stare at Robin but, despite her best efforts, couldn’t help herself. Robin wore a sports bikin
i top with boxer-style bottoms, sunglasses firmly in place and arms crossed so that her muscles stood out. When the elevator opened, Andee had to lean against the wall, because her legs felt like noodles.
Robin was still hot. Still very hot. And it was getting increasingly hard to ignore that fact. And her attraction...
“Whoa, I was bracing for, like, a million people being in here!” sang out Tiffany when they reached the poolroom. “And look at how lucky that is. Just us, darlings!” she said, winking as she used her key card to open up the door to the pool.
The instant humidity and warmth of the heated pool hit Andee, and she breathed in the acidic smell of the chlorine as she kicked off her flip-flops and took off the black cover-up she’d worn over her bikini.
Tiffany whistled as she glanced sidelong at Andee, grinning like a wolf and winking. Andee wanted to kill her as both Jill and Robin glanced her way. And then all thoughts of killing escaped Andee’s mind as Robin’s eyes raked over her, up and down her body, the taller woman’s blue gaze wide and appreciative.
“You look great,” said Robin then, one brow raised as she pushed up her sunglasses, grinning sidelong at her.
Andee’s entire body was in imminent danger of blushing, so she grinned in return, ducking her head, and waded down the steps into the water as quickly as she could.
Andee didn’t look like she had in college. She’d put on a bit of weight, was curvier now, but the expression that Robin still wore when she waded into the water after her was so appreciative, so desiring, that Andee knew it didn’t matter. Robin had always found her attractive, something that Andee used to tease her about. “I’m not even cute!” she’d say, groaning as Robin’s eyes roved over her naked body in bed.
“No,” Robin had whispered to her as her mouth sought out Andee’s—again and again. “You’re beautiful.”
Andee held her breath, feeling the blush rise into her face, and all in one go, she went underwater.
The Thousand Mile Love Story Page 11